Victim mourned on mean street

STOCKTON - Candles flickered around empty bottles of liquor and a single red rose Wednesday as loved ones added items to a makeshift memorial for a man who was gunned down 24 hours earlier on a central Stockton street.

STOCKTON - Candles flickered around empty bottles of liquor and a single red rose Wednesday as loved ones added items to a makeshift memorial for a man who was gunned down 24 hours earlier on a central Stockton street.

The shooting occurred about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 600 block of North American Street outside the Doyle Gardens apartment complex, an area known for drugs, gangs and violence, police said.

The victim, identified by the San Joaquin County Coroner's Office as 21-year-old Devandre Norwood, died after suffering multiple gunshot wounds to the neck and chest, authorities and witnesses said.

Tensions remained high a day after onlookers clashed with police following the brazen midday attack. A group of about 15 men loitered on the sidewalk a few feet from where Norwood fell, some grieving more than others.

"That was my little brother," one man said. "He was very kind, and he had a lot of friends - homies - who loved him."

The victim's brother then offered a brief account of the shooting, which set off a volatile scene where police were met with a hostile crowd that shouted at officers before being dispersed.

"We were just sitting right out here and some guy came out of nowhere and started shooting," he said.

The man provided his brother's name, but he was shouted down and intimidated by others before he could provide his own name. A group of men sitting nearby ordered him to stop talking to a newspaper reporter and told the reporter to "get the (expletive) out of here."

Police have not released a description of the shooter and provided no new information on the case Wednesday, saying only that the investigation was ongoing.

The shooting occurred just a few blocks away from a home where three people were wounded June 20 when gunfire erupted in the 1200 block of East Oak Street. Norwood died on the same block where another 21-year-old man, Eric Madison, was shot and killed in early December while walking near East Oak and North American streets.

As night fell Wednesday, the ornery afternoon crowd was gone and two women were there sweeping the street and sidewalk around the modest memorial for Norwood.

"He was Dennis the Menace and the Tasmanian Devil all rolled into one, but you can't help but love him," said Tanya Mathews, a friend of Norwood's. "He had a smile that was out of this world."

Contact Jason Anderson at (209) 546-8279 or janderson@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/crimeblog.